During its five-year existence, the New York chapter has been geared primarily toward networking, with a series of monthly “hangouts” and an active e-mail exchange through which members announce job openings and event information. But in recent months the chapter has also begun a recurring career counseling event and hosted a personal finance seminar (“Living Well, Doing Good... on a Nonprofit Salary!”) that drew nearly 200 people. And over the past two years the city chapter has seen its membership triple, to a current membership of 2,500.
“We’re trying to provide the next generation of nonprofit leaders with career guidance and venues where they can improve their skills,” says Jorge Montalvo, a YNPN New York board member.
Michael Clark, the executive director of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee, a non-profit umbrella group that represents 1,400 organizations in New York, is among the nonprofit leaders who are skeptical of the demographic time-bomb theory. But he suggests that when it comes to professional development these young nonprofit professionals are “on to something.”
“Are young people in the nonprofit sector now moving up at the rate, and with the support, that will enable them to comfortably glide into positions of leadership?” Clark asks. “I would suspect that in many cases the answer is no. My guess is there isn’t enough mentoring going on.”
The YNPN isn’t setting its sights on mentoring and professional development alone, however. Using the survey as a platform, the organization plans to fashion an advocacy agenda to draw attention to other problems it considers endemic to the sector: meager salaries, resistance to innovation, a lack of diversity.
By all accounts these are stubborn problems – Kunreuther, for one, likened solving them to “turning around a barge” – but the good news is that the YNPN will likely have some time to devise solutions. To hear Wackstein and others tell it, when the young nonprofit professionals are ready to take over, they may find that the boomers are reluctant to part with their beloved organizations. As Wackstein put it, with a chuckle, “I think some of the people in these jobs now are going to die in their boots.”
